Cuba recently launched its own answer to Windows this week, or, in the bigger picture, what the Cubans are calling "US Hegemony." Nova, the new open source OS being offered by the Cuban government, is being made to boot out US-based Microsoft products.

Clear winner for the first option, from the Cuban government point of view.

Let me put it this way.

When a man is dying of incurable cancer, would you organise a party with balloons and pinatas when the doctor tells you he cured that man's ingrown toenail?

Cuba is a totalitarian dictatorship. I find it kind of sad that people apparently find it okay that the Cuban government cares more about possible backdoors in software than it does about the well-being of its own people.

When a man is dying of incurable cancer, would you organise a party with balloons and pinatas when the doctor tells you he cured that man's ingrown toenail?

Of course! If the guy is dying, you should be doing anything you can to make him feel better in the time remaining. To write him off simply because he won't be around sooner rather than later is the height of cruelty.

When a man is dying of incurable cancer, would you organise a party with balloons and pinatas when the doctor tells you he cured that man's ingrown toenail?

Cuba is a totalitarian dictatorship. I find it kind of sad that people apparently find it okay that the Cuban government cares more about possible backdoors in software than it does about the well-being of its own people.

This is OSNews, we talk about OS.
You have your political view and many people don't agree with you. No need to start another cold war or propaganda war on OSNews. You probably never went to Cuba anyway.

A dictatorship yes, totalitarian, I'm not so sure about that.
After the "Special Period", for instance, collectivism was to a certain extent sacrificed for more private ownership (with the concept of usufruct); basically the government was forced to do that because of the food/agricultural/oil crisis.

I'm sure it's politically incorrect in many circles, but whatever the flaws and evils of the Cuban government, contrast for example the level of education to that of many other autocratic third world nations. And contrast the way the Cubans coped with their major energy crisis, to what's going on and what will be going on in North America when the dollar collapses.
And perhaps some people here watched Michael Moore's Sicko. ;-)
Not to justify anything of course, but tell me Thom where the democracy in say the Netherlands is? Or perhaps you'd agree we have a "totalitarian bureaucracy" here? :-)

When a man is dying of incurable cancer, would you organise a party with balloons and pinatas when the doctor tells you he cured that man's ingrown toenail?

Cuba is a totalitarian dictatorship. I find it kind of sad that people apparently find it okay that the Cuban government cares more about possible backdoors in software than it does about the well-being of its own people.

Last year Fidel Castro stepped down from the throne and let his son take over. Last year also saw the right for regular citizens to obtain and use personal computers. That's a start in my opinion. Government support for an OS which whomever citizen can modify to his or her liking is also a step towards some freedom.

Don't be so anti-Cuba. No one likes dictatorship except the dictators themselves, but every single step towards freedom in any of its forms for the citizens and their data is a step in the right direction.